Development of chimeric gene promoters responsive to hypoxia and ionizing radiation

We describe two systems that make use of gene, directed enzyme prodrug therapy, regulated by radiation or hypoxic, responsive promoters. The use of treatment-, condition- or tumor-specific promoters to control gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy is one such method for targeting gene expression to the tumor. The development of such strategies that achieve tumor targeted expression of genes via selective promoters will enable improved specificity and targeting thereby addressing one of the major limitations of cancer gene therapy.